a taste for solitude – Ciaran Short

January 27, 2026

“do you praise your god of silence in the absence of watchful eyes?”

the question informed me of the answer he was seeking. he sought an ally in a war that i had no interest in fighting. i’m a conscientious objector to philosophical debates. i left behind the annals of theory in the ivory towers of my past. academia made my skin crawl and my neck hot. i found no comfort in analysis. his question might as well have been rhetorical, as he was revealing far more about himself then he could ever learn about me from the answer.

“yes. i do.”